MH-267 Lymbyc Systym - Shutter ReleaseWith a touring schedule that keeps them on the road seemingly more than it gives them time at home, Lymbyc Systym have miraculously completed their second full-length album, entitled Shutter Release. Magnifying the already giant sounds of Love Your Abuser was not an easy task, but with Jeff Zeigler behind the boards recording the album and John Congleton (Modest Mouse, Explosions In The Sky) shaping the mixdowns, they’ve managed to do just that. Instrumentation has become broader, arrangements more grandiose, and melodies more focused, resulting in a sublime second album. While the stacked keys and busy drums that defined their previous outing still create the foundation of much of Shutter Release, the Brothers Bell have added acoustic and electric guitars, majestic brass and disembodied vocals to their arsenal. On Shutter Release, Lymbyc Systym prove there are few better than them at reviving memories with sound.

What is most immediately arresting about Lymbyc Systym is how warm the Brooklyn duo manages to feel, particularly on most recent effort Shutter Release. For a project that has made its name blurring the edges of electronic music with indie-oriented post-rock, "warm" is almost certainly not the first modifier that springs to most minds. Sweeping sonic vistas and grandiose crescendos abound, but LS manages to make them sound as if they come spooling out of the trees, or the very earth itself, rather than as cosmic radiation or the midnight revelations of a computer-aided consciousness. The electronic influence is subtle, which allows the music to breathe and swell under the obvious influence of humans working with something very specific in mind, not simply an agglomeration of neat ideas pasted together and given a title. The programming is so subtle and well used, sometimes it's nearly indiscernible from the acoustic instrumentation if you're not listening with an overly critical ear. But that's easy to do with this album, which draws you in and makes its world the only one there is, at least for a scant 40 minutes. - Houston Press